MILESTONE MAN

I humbly apologize for the lateness of this post, but now that I can finally make some I take the time to pay my respects to Dwayne McDuffie.

He died Monday the 21st and is survived by his wife and mother. His legacy lives on.

I'm grateful to him for all he contributed to comics, both what I know now and what I have yet to learn. I know he did more than Milestone Media but I can't thank him enough. Because the fact is if he hadn't shared heroes with us from different races and ethnicities than I wouldn't have personally gone further in my art, with races, ethnicities and cultures. Especially cultures. I took what Dwayne gave us on the surface, although he put on display various cultures, and ran with it as it immediatly applied to me. Dwayne was very cultured but if this is fair, he layed a foundation, addressing skin color and PC and blazed a trail for younger writers and artists to travel on as they followed their dreams and represented themselves.

If it weren't for the work God put into Dwayne's heart I wouldn't dream about sharring my heroes with the world one day, with taste and class and integrity the way Dwayne proved we could. Diamond In the Rough will be a reality in some way shape of form, presenting art, films and books that showcase diverse cultures and beliefs and peoples saving the day just as Dwayne did.

Dwayne showed it was ok to do this, to depict your friends and family from different walks of life and that saving the day could be as simple as fighting racism or preventing relational abuse. Stopping domestic villains like absent fathers or things like drugs and gay prejuidice was considered heroic in Milestone Comics. And again I know I am always screaming their praises and I know Dwayne wrote FAR MORE than just his own comics, he contributed to Marvel and

DC, worked with the former before starting his won company!

I also enjoyed his JL and JLU episodes and I lookf forward to the new All-Star Superman movie coming out. I can never forget how his ... characterization has inspired me to write about my race and diverse cultures within the Black community and outside of us. Its just a great blessing and I know his work in Milestone and beyond has blessed a lot of fans out there.

I wanna type up a prayer here:
Father God, I thank you for the ministry that was Dwayne McDuffie. He simply did what was in his heart to do and I believe the gifts within him were bestowed from you. To think that God cares about comicbook fans enough to send us people like Stan Lee, Siegle& Shuster, Geoff Johns, Gail Simone and Dwayne McDuffie and SO MANY OTHERS. Thank you for McDuffie. Thank you for Milestone and Startic and Icon and the rest. Thanks for how they have affected the fans for the better in recent years, thank you for blessing me through their stories. Thanks for inspiring us, Lord, via the imaginations of these talented men and women. Thanks for giving us Dwayne McDuffie. I hope we returned him to you in better condition than when you gave him to us.

Rest in peace Dwayne McDuffie, thanks for the tales. Dwayne McDuffie (1962-2011).

To learn more about him and his art: http://dwaynemcduffie.com/

EL FIN

The Green Bee! ...Er Hornet!

Pleasant surprise... this movie doesn't suck! When I saw the trailer for the first time late last year I had doubts. I envisioned a typical serious take on the Green Hornet, just with a modern audience in mind; an upgrade on a classic hero and probably a fresh franchise in the works. Well I got that, just not the way I expected.

I have to admit I muddled myself up a little bit before hand cuz I read Kevin Smith's new comic based on the character before seeing the movie. I forgot it wasn't his story haha on the screen. Still a fine read and I'll have to add that to my collection soon enough.

Anyway the title of this post is a refference to the joke Britt (Seth Rogen) makes about the new green thug in town. Well actually he was serious, "His name is easy: THE GREEN BEE!". Slight paraphrase but he's kind of an idot sometimes and that's the best he could come up with for his own alter ego. Kato (Jay Chou) saves him some embarrassment by renaming him the Hornet.

But that right there is one of the elements that makes this movie fun. Loads of humor throughout! I read a lot of the dialogue was improvised too, and I don't know how much percentage-wise but I thought that was cool and maybe its what makes it fresh.

Which reminds me this is definitely a buddy film! Britt and Kato's friendship is great to watch from infancy to maturity... not so much on Britt's part but he's getting there, seriously. Their crazy plans are awesome, their fighting over the new girl (Cameron Diaz) is awesome, the cars are awesome and Kato's fighting is, you guessed it, AWESOME.

The plot is Britt's dad is a jerk who wants his son to man up and take on responsibility. Britt resents his dad cuz he thinks pop never believed in him anyway (the first 5 minutes set that up and it's disappointing to watch young Britt) so he's just becoming what dad really thinks of him. Then his dad dies and everyone sees him as this great guy who Britt never knew and it confuses the heck out of him. What he needs is coffee! Come to find out Kato, the family mechanic, also built a sweet machine to make the best cup of Joe ever! He's also a "human Swiss-army knife". After venting over Mr. Reid wasted both of their potential they save a couple after a night of shenanigans and suddenly they think they can take on crime: Britt's power + Kato's genius = ... I don't know, oh yeah, something awesome LOL.

They run up against a pretty neat villain (Christoff Waltz) who has sort of an origin story over the course of the movie too which is handled in an interesting way. It's cool to watch him grow and kind of actually go through what Britt and Kato go through in the beginning, that feeling of wasting away, only this time as a criminal who isn't taken seriously, versus a son. Plus I liked his official villainous epiphany at the end ^_^

So for me, The Green Hornet is my Kick-Ass. That movie is ok but TGH is the normal guy becomes a superhero in the 2st century movie I was looking for, though I admit I am biased cuz I get pseudo-powers and sweet car to go with it. Plus its definitely a superhero movie whereas Kick-Ass disses orthodox hero movies.

But of course I loved this, I love conventional heroes so, yeah.

It's a pretty stylistic movie. The fights are cool and they borrow the adrenaline-spike from Wanted only more toned down and literally hands on lol. I saw it in 3D and it's cool during the fights but the movie didn't really need it.

Britt and Kato posing as bad guys to beat bad guys is a darring idea but I get it, though maybe at a second viewing i might get more of an idea as to why the two really choose to do that. Or it really was boredom and adrenaline junkiness that made them done masks and drive a souped up car. They were pretty aware of the corruption in the city, maybe not Gotham City corrupt but in

trouble nonetheless.

Cameron Diaz I kind of forget is in the movie though her character is needed, maybe they should of given her more screen time or more presence? I don't know. I didn't dislike her but maybe she was just outshined lol. These two knucleheads really do need a level-headed person to help them understand organized crime, fists and toys are only gonna get you so far. Maybe Diaz will do more in a sequel?

And I'll end with that hope. This story ended nicely and the writers don't come off like they are really trying to make a second one. It's more you know that Britt, Kato, and Lenore (Diaz) will be keeping this up for a while and are getting a system together as they rebuild after all the chaos in this installment. I enjoyed the heck out of The Green Hornet and yeah I hope another one comes out but I'll def buy this on dvd and get K. SMith's comic sappy-A.S.A.P.

Oh I lied, I'll end with Jay Chou's music video for his song Nunchucks at the movie's end credits. sorry I couldn't find one with english subtitles, but it's a fun song. Enjoy!

EL FIN